Each source of capital has a different cost because of the differences among the sources, such as seniority, contractual commitments, and potential value as a tax shield. For business, there are mainly three sources of capital: debt, preferred equity, and common equity. Understanding the cost of each part is crucial in knowing the cost of capital of business.

Cost of capital plays important roles in financial analysis and asset valuation. A chief use of the marginal cost of capital estimate is in capital-budgeting decision making. What role does the marginal cost of capital play in a company's investment program, and how do we adapt it when we need to evaluate a specific investment project?

When evaluating a project or long term investment of company, it is important to reach right decisions based on the capital budgeting methods. Analysts often use several important criteria to evaluate capital investments. The two most comprehensive measures of whether a project is profitable or unprofitable are the net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). In addition to these, there are four other criteria that are frequently used: the payback period . The article gives instructions on each of the evaluation methods.

The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is an important topic in finance, it is also called the discount rate and used in evaluating whether a project is feasible or not in the net present value (NPV) analysis, or in assessing the value of an asset. The WACC is also referred to as the marginal cost of capital (MCC) because it is the cost that a company incurs for additional capital. The weights in this weighted average are the proportions of the various sources of capital that the company uses to support its investment program.

The cost of this capital is an important ingredient in both investment decision making by the company's management and the valuation of the company by investors. If a company invests in projects that produce a return in excess of the cost of capital, the company has created value; in contrast, if the company invests in projects whose returns are less than the cost of capital, the company has actually destroyed value. Therefore, the estimation of the cost of capital is a central issue in corporate financial management. For the analyst seeking to evaluate a company's investment program and its competitive position, an accurate estimate of a company's cost of capital is important as well.

Capital budgeting is a complex process that involves careful analysis and calculation especially for large projects. There are some basic principles you need to take into consideration when performing capital budgeting.

Companies often put capital budgeting projects into some rough categories for analysis. One such classification would be: replacement projects, expansion projects, new product and service, Regulatory, safety, and environmental projects and others. The below is the details of each category.

Capital budgeting is the process that companies use for decision making on capital project. The capital project lasts for longer time, usually more than one year. As the project is usually large and has important impact on the long term success of the business, it is crucial for the business to make the right decision.

When we estimate a project’s cash flows and then discount them at the project’s risk-adjusted cost of capital, r, the result is the project’s NPV, which tells us how much the project increases the firm’s value. Cash flow estimation is the foundation of capital budgeting for projects.

Capital budgeting is the whole process of analyzing projects and deciding which ones to accept and thus include in the capital budget. Capital budgeting is key to the long term success of business and companies. A firm’s growth, and even its ability to remain competitive and to survive, depends on a constant flow of ideas for new products, improvements in existing products, and ways to operate more efficiently. Accordingly, well-managed firms go to great lengths to develop good capital budgeting proposals.

A firm's primary financial objective is to maximize shareholder value. The firm can increase shareholder value by investing in projects that yield a return greater than the cost of capital. Thus, the cost of capital is also referred to as a hurdle rate. The firm analyzes prospective projects through capital ·budgeting decisions, which involve discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. The cost of capital should be the proper discount rate used in the DCF analysis.